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Friday, June 14, 2013

Utah Tar Sands Roadshow at WRFF 2013!

COMING TO WILD ROOTS FERAL FUTURES 2013!

The Utah Tar Sands Roadshow is a listening
project and educational presentation about the impact of tar sands
extraction on people, water, and the land. Tar sands development is one
of the most destructive industries on earth--and a Canadian company is
bringing it to Utah unless we rise up to stop it before it starts.

Tar sands are geological deposits containing bitumen. In order
recover oil, bitumen must be strip-mined, pulverized, chemically
separated, and then extensively refined. This process requires enormous
amounts of energy input and requires 1.5 - 3 barrels of water for every
barrel of oil created. Utah is the second most arid state in the nation
and tar sands extraction would tap already stressed watersheds. The
proposed mine lies in the Colorado River watershed, which 30 million
people downstream rely on for agriculture and drinking water.

Tar sands mining also requires extensive refinery expansions in Salt
Lake City, which will add to the already record level air pollution
along the Wasatch Front.

An extractive project of this scale will irreversibly impact the
remote and pristine Tavaputs Plateau in Eastern Utah. Some claim there
are 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil contained in this large
formation. This would mean disaster for the climate as tar sands
extraction releases roughly three times more greenhouse gases per barrel
than conventional oil.

The Utah Tar Sands Roadshow will journey around the region weaving
together stories of resistance and resilience in the face of tar sands
and other forms of extreme energy extraction. Our collection of
interviews and conversations will be constantly updated on our website
and compiled into a production to help educate people on the impacts of
tar sands mining in the United States and the world.